SAVE
In Undertale Yellow, just like in original Undertale, SAVE is the in-universe name given to save files. This mechanic mostly remains the same as in Undertale, with slightly different details and different SAVE point locations.
Save[edit | edit source]
Saving the game can be done at SAVE points, which have the identical appearance as in original Undertale. However, the difference in Undertale Yellow is that Clover (during most of the game's story) does not have the necessary determination to perform saving by themselves, and Flowey does it for them instead. This is because saving is exclusive to the being with the highest determination in the Underground, and Flowey was equipped with this ability since his injection in the True Lab. Most SAVE points, therefore, show Flowey popping up from the regular star-shaped SAVE point, giving a bit of dialogue depending on the location and situation, and then showing the SAVE prompt.
Flowey uses this ability to his advantage at the end of a Neutral Route, when he kills Clover and tries to take their SOUL. At the end of a Genocide Route, when Clover obtains LV 20 after killing Martlet, they override Flowey's ability to SAVE. This prevents him from escaping the scene, and Clover subsequently kills him.
Autosaves[edit | edit source]
There are three instances in which the game performs an automatic SAVE:
- After Flowey's introduction in the Dark Ruins. This means that if no other saving is performed, the farthest point Clover can get back to after dying is the start of the Dark Ruins.
- After Flowey kills Clover at the end of a Neutral Route.
- Before the cutscene where Clover decides to give their SOUL to monsterkind at the end of the True Pacifist Route. This was added in v1.1 of Undertale Yellow, to mitigate the issue where players frequently experienced lag in the aforementioned cutscene. Instead of replaying the entire final battle after their game gets stuck, players can instead replay only the cutscene.[1]
No saves[edit | edit source]
If Clover never requests a SAVE at one of Flowey's SAVE points, he comments on it on several occasions:
- At the exit from Dark Ruins on a Neutral or Genocide Route, after destroying the planks guarding the exit. He nudges Clover to use his help with saving.
- After Clover refuses to save at the West Mines save point in the Dunes. This time, Flowey appears angry about Clover's refusal to SAVE.
- At Flowey's SAVE point in UG Apartments, where he counts the number of Clover's deaths. Realizing Clover's never saved before, he deduces that their death count must be zero.
- After Flowey kills Martlet at the end of a Neutral Route. Flowey realizes that their friendship has always been one-sided, since Clover never bothered to SAVE.
Load[edit | edit source]
At the start menu of the game, if a save exists, the player is presented with the ability to load it. Likewise, once Clover dies in battle against Minibosses/Bosses (except Meta Flowey) or even normal enemies if Always allow retry is toggled on, they are presented with the options to retry the battle ("Retry") or load their save file ("Continue"). Retrying the battle loads a temporary save from the start of that battle, resetting only Clover's stats. If Always allow retry is toggled off and they died against normal enemies, their only choice is "Continue".
If Clover waits for 5 minutes at the starting room of the Dark Ruins, Toriel throws down a rope. If they try to climb that rope the game does a glitch effect restarting itself shortly after, and it will load from the last SAVE Point, or from the beginning if no SAVE has been made. This indicates that Flowey reloaded Clover's SAVE, as he also appears for a few frames randomly on the screen with a smaller size than the normal overworld one, before the game restarts.
Unlike in Undertale, there is no Dogcheck. There are also no monsters who have a different reaction after loading the same save.
Reset[edit | edit source]
Similarly to Undertale, if a save exists, the player is presented with the ability to reset on the start menu. Pressing Reset on said menu starts the game from the Ruins flower pile, however this does not delete the main SAVE file (Save.sav
), but the file will get overwritten as usual on a playthrough by the manual saving of the player or by the autosaves. After finishing the Pacifist Route or Genocide Route of Undertale Yellow, the player is also presented with a choice to reset on the "Stay"/"Reset" screen and, contrarily to the start menu, pressing Reset on said screen always does delete the main save file if it is present, as it gets deleted by the credits of the Flawed Pacifist Ending (and also the credits of the Neutral Route Ending, though there's no "Stay"/"Reset" screen in that ending).
The only two pieces of information preserved across runs of Undertale Yellow are how many times has Flowey introduced Clover to the game at the start of the Dark Ruins (internally named global.meta_flowey_introduction_
), and how many times Clover has fought Flowey (internally named global.meta_flowey_fight_count
). Flowey uses the first piece of information to skip or shorten the introduction if the player has already seen it, and the second piece of information to determine whether to show Clover his flashbacks of them failing to reach Asgore over and over, as well as his monologue at the end of his battle. Internal names for these two variables are also the reason why Flowey's final form was given the name "Meta Flowey," despite the "meta" part of these internal names referring to the variables themselves being "meta."
Save Files[edit | edit source]
Undertale Yellow stores four save files:
Save.sav
: main save file, stores all information about Clover's progress throughout the game, as well as their stats. Gets deleted upon the credits of the Flawed Pacifist Ending and the credits of the Neutral Route Ending, or upon pressing Reset on "Stay"/"Reset" screens.Save02.sav
: persistent save file, stores information about how many times Flowey introduced Clover at the Dark Ruins, how many times Clover fought Flowey, temporary flags that display "Stay"/"Reset" screens at the end of the Pacifist and Genocide Route, and Clover's death count. Does not get deleted upon a reset, but all variables except for two Flowey ones get reset.tempsave.sav
: temporary save file, used for retrying battles. Does not get deleted upon a reset.Controls.sav
: save file for game configuration and controls. Does not get deleted upon a reset.
All save files are stored under the %LOCALAPPDATA%/Undertale_Yellow
folder on Windows and are in the INI file format.
SAVE Points[edit | edit source]
Dark Ruins[edit | edit source]
Snowdin[edit | edit source]
Dunes[edit | edit source]
Steamworks[edit | edit source]
Hotland and New Home[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Added an autosave post the final pacifist boss as a temporary help with reported performance issues in this cutscene - Version 1.1 Out Now! (Patch Notes) (Team Undertale Yellow, December 14, 2023.) Game Jolt.